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Pennsylvania, often referred to as the Alabama of the North, has
a long and ugly history of enslaving people.
In colonial times
the slaves were mostly native Americans, poor Europeans who were
called "indentured servants," poor European children who were
called "apprentices," and a smattering of African Americans.
Until about 1775 more than a third of Pennsylvania's population
belonged to these classes of slaves and "semi-slaves."
More than
half of them were girls and women kept as live-in whores.
Pennsylvania slavery didn't really get booming until after the civil war. Big businesses saw the advantages of enslavement. Being capitalists and therefore devious and unscrupulous, big business found ways to "improve" on the slavery model used by the South. In the South slavery was primarily a market in African Americans, a few Native Americans, Orientals and Spanish. The slaves were "owned," that is, they were bought, sold and bred. Southern slaves were dealt with pretty much as livestock. Their owners cared for them when they were young and when they got old. They were supplied with housing and food, a certain amount of health care. They had a few legal rights, but not many. In other words, blacks were dealt with pretty much the way they are today, although today they aren't owned, just cared for. In Pennsylvania after the Civil War most of the slaves were Europeans, usually poor immigrants from the Eastern and Southern parts of the continent. They were hated, maligned, criticized, abused, cheated and exploited. They weren't cared for. In their old age they were thrown out. In other words, pretty much the way America treats immigrants (now called illegal aliens) today. The capitalists who operated Pennsylvania's coal mines, employed tens of thousands of these people. The capitalists paid them a small wage for doing extremely dangerous and arduous labor. But they weren't paid in real money. They were paid in "scrip," a kind of play money issued by the company. The scrip was worthless except to pay back to the company. The workers had to live in towns owned and operated by the company and the company cops. They had to rent tiny dingy homes owned by the company. They had to buy their necessities at high prices from a store owned by the company. When they got sick, they were discarded. When they died, and more than 30,000 died in the mines by the end of the century, their families were tossed out, penniless, usually deeply in debt to the company. If the workers/slaves complained, the company imported thugs to beat or kill them. The Pennsylvania State Police was founded as a tool of the capitalist mine operators to oppress and control the indigent workers, to keep them obediently in line. In other words, pretty much like today. It wasn't just miners who were enslaved. Railroads were largely built and operated with a similarly enslaved work force. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and Coal Company is a notorious example of the worst in capitalism. Their descendants are still around today. In the South the slaves were easily identified by their color. It was a convenient way to oppress and control them. When a "decent" citizen saw a black fellow he could automatically look down upon him. The blackman didn't have to be dealt with like a human being. He or she was simply an object. Since Pennsylvania's slaves were mostly, but not entirely Eurpoeans, (in the early days there were plenty of African Americans in the mines, mostly as craftsmen) color wasn't used to identify them. Pennsylvania's slaves were identified by their shabby, company-store clothing and by their languages. The capitalists worked to keep their slaves ignorant and speaking their easily identified native tongues. There were no real schools. Where the Catholic Church get a footing (remember that all the land was owned or controlled by the mine operators) there was a little basic indoctrination and what might pass for elementary schooling. The capitalists tolerated it only because the Church taught obedience and submission to authority. The authority was, of course, the capitalists. In other words, pretty much like today. The history of the Catholic Church and of Christianity generally is one of imposing weird mythologies on the people and holding them in fear and lowly servitude. Thinking for yourself is a sin of the "liberals." The viciously violent Irish along with a few of the Welsh were much less easy to bully. From the 1870s until after the turn of the Twentieth Century, they fought oppression and exploitation by the capitalists. Regrettably, many of today's Irish are among the most extreme right-wing advocates. Beware of the O'Reileys and Sullivans of today. Many are the puppets of the very capitalists they used to defy. The "illegal" aliens, mostly Hispanics, who today do the millions of jobs that Americans are "too good" to do, are treated in many ways like Pennsylvania's slaves were treated. "Illegal" aliens, who are really immigrants just as your parents or grandparents were, are looked down upon, demeaned, despised, cheated, exploited and criticized. Conservative right-wing extremists (that means Republicans) want to deny them schooling and medical care along with the right to drive, and even deprive them of citizenship. Obviously the same conservatives who want to oppress today's immigrants, are themselves descendants of earlier immigrants. It's a continuum of injustice. In modern times Pennsylvania has focused to a newer and crueler flavor of slavery, imprisonment. Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania's citizens are enslaved in prison. Pennsylvania keeps a greater percentage of it's population in prison than Russia does or than third world countries do. Pennsylvania just can't give up the delights of maintaining a submissive underclass. Pennsylvania's imprisoned thousands are nothing more than so much coal to be warehoused. The Commonwealth is a dying backwater. Its only growing industry is imprisonment. Pennsylvania is a place you should avoid.
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